KARACHI: The Pak Rupee fell by four paisas on Monday owing to demand for import payment as market opened after two weekly holidays.
The rupee ended at Rs166.83 to the dollar from last Friday’s of Rs166.79 in interbank foreign exchange market.
The rupee was under pressure during the day due to demand for import payment, especially related to commodities used during the holy month of Razaman.
Currency experts said that the rupee may make gain in coming days with expected disbursement by the IMF.
They said that the IMF disbursement would help the country to improve foreign exchange reserves.
The experts said that the rupee likely to gain further in future owing to lower import payment demand after decline in international oil prices.
The import bill of the country has declined by 21 percent in March 2020 over the previous month owing to lockdown to contain coronavirus pandemic.
The import bill was at $3.3 billion in March 2020 as compared with $4.185 billion in February 2020, according to data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
Similarly, the pandemic also adversely affected the country’s exports. The exports fell by 15.56 percent to $1.8 billion in March 2020 as compared with $2.14 billion in February 2020.
The total import bill during July – March 2019/2020 fell by 14.42 percent to $38.81 billion as compared with $40.68 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
However, the exports registered increase of 2.23 percent during first nine months of current fiscal year to $17.45 billion as compared with $17 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.
The trade deficit during first nine months contracted by 26.45 percent to $17.36 billion as compared with the deficit of $23.61 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
